Israel will Resume Stalled Negotiations, Gaza Ceasefire Hopes Rise

Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza were gathering momentum on Friday after Hamas made a revised proposal on the terms of a deal and Israel said it would resume stalled negotiations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden on Thursday he would send a delegation to resume negotiations, and an Israeli official said his country’s team would be led by the head of the Mossad intelligence agency.
A source in Israel’s negotiating team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was a real chance of achieving agreement after Hamas made its revised proposal on the terms of a deal, received by Israel on Wednesday.
The Israeli response to the Hamas proposal, submitted via mediators, was in marked contrast to past instances during the nearly nine-month-old war in Gaza, when Israel said conditions attached by the militant group were not acceptable.
A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace efforts said that the new Hamas proposal could lead to a framework agreement if it is embraced by Israel.
He said Hamas was no longer demanding as a pre-condition an Israeli commitment to permanently cease fire before the signing of an agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout a first six-week phase.
Hamas has previously said any deal must end the war and bring a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and sought the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel in exchange for Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Israel has previously said it will accept only temporary pauses in the fighting until Hamas, which governs the small, densely populated Gaza Strip, is eradicated.
Hezbollah said on Friday its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and a top Hamas official, Khalil al-Hayya, had met to discuss the latest developments in Gaza. It provided no details of the outcome.